Write for us
We publish people who know something the rest of us do not
USA Wire commissions from operators, analysts, researchers, and reporters who can explain how something actually works from the inside. If you have spent real time close to a subject, we want to read your pitch.
What we are looking for
The common thread is first-hand knowledge and a claim that can be checked. Everything below has run on USA Wire and worked.
Explanatory analysis
A mechanism the news is reporting on but not explaining. Why a rule change moves a price, why a business model breaks at scale, what a filing actually discloses.
Practitioner accounts
What a process looks like from inside it, written by someone who ran it. Specific, dated, and grounded in decisions you personally made or watched being made.
Data-led pieces
An argument built on a dataset you can share. We will want the source, the method, and the ability to reproduce the numbers ourselves.
Reported features
Original reporting with named sources and documents. Pitch the question you intend to answer rather than the conclusion you expect to reach.
Argued commentary
A clear position on a contested question, argued against the strongest version of the other side rather than the weakest.
Reference explainers
Durable pieces that answer a question readers keep asking, written to still be accurate and useful in two years.
The evidence bar
Every factual claim in a USA Wire article has to be attributable to something a reader could go and check: a filing, a dataset, a named source, a document, a published study. Your draft will be edited against that standard, and an editor will ask you for the underlying material rather than taking the sentence on trust.
This is the part that surprises most first-time contributors, so it is worth saying plainly. We are not asking for footnotes on everything. We are asking that when we point at a sentence and say “how do we know this”, you have an answer beyond recollection or industry consensus.
Pieces that clear that bar are edited lightly and published quickly. Pieces that do not are sent back with specific questions, not rejected outright, and most of them come back stronger.
We will not publish
- SEO guest posts written to place a backlink.
- Articles that promote the author’s own product without disclosing the relationship.
- Work produced primarily by a language model and submitted as your own reporting.
- Content that has already appeared elsewhere, in whole or in substance.
- Investment recommendations or anything that reads as financial advice.
- Pieces placed on behalf of a paying client. That is advertising, and it belongs on the advertising page.
How to pitch
Send the pitch, not the finished article. We would rather shape a piece with you at the idea stage than ask you to rewrite three thousand words you have already filed.
The claim in one sentence
What are you telling the reader that they do not already know? If you cannot compress it to a sentence, the piece is not ready to pitch.
Why you
Two or three lines on your relationship to the subject. Job titles matter less than proximity to the thing you are writing about.
Your evidence
List the sources, datasets, or documents the argument rests on, and confirm you can share them with an editor.
Shape and length
A rough structure and a target word count. Most published pieces land between 1,000 and 2,000 words.
Two writing samples
Links are fine. Unpublished work is fine. We are reading for clarity of thought, not for the prestige of the outlet.
Any conflicts
Holdings, employment, advisory roles, or client relationships touching the subject. Disclosure almost never kills a pitch. Discovering it later does.
From pitch to publication
| Stage | What happens | Typical timing |
|---|---|---|
| Pitch review | A commissioning editor reads and responds either way | 5–7 working days |
| Commission | Angle, length, deadline, and rate agreed in writing | On acceptance |
| Draft | You file; the editor responds with structural notes | Within 5 working days |
| Verification | Claims checked against your sources | 2–4 working days |
| Publication | Byline, biography, and one external link of your choosing | Scheduled with you |
Rates, rights, and credit
Commissioned work is paid. The rate depends on length, the amount of original reporting involved, and how much verification the piece needs, and it is agreed in writing before you start writing rather than negotiated after you file. We do not ask people to work for exposure.
You keep copyright in your work. USA Wire takes first publication rights plus a permanent non-exclusive licence to keep the piece online and in our archive. After thirty days you are free to republish it anywhere you like, provided the original is credited and linked.
Every contributor gets a full byline, a biography of up to forty words, and one link to a site or profile of your choosing. Ghostwritten and anonymous bylines are available only where there is a genuine risk to the author, and that decision is made by a senior editor.
Contributor questions
Do you accept unsolicited finished drafts?
We read them, but the odds are much worse. A finished draft has already made every structural decision, and if those decisions are wrong for us the piece is hard to rescue. Pitch first.
Can I include a link to my company?
One relevant link in your author biography, always. Links inside the article body only where they are the natural source for a claim. Articles built around promoting the author’s own product are not editorial and will be declined.
Can I pay to be published?
No. Editorial space is not sold. If your goal is reaching our readers commercially, the advertising desk offers labelled sponsored articles, which is a legitimate and clearly different product.
Do you work with writers outside the United States?
Yes, provided the piece is relevant to a US business audience. A good deal of what shapes American markets happens somewhere else.
Can I use AI tools when writing?
For research, structuring, and tidying your own prose, yes. For generating the substance you then submit under your name, no. The reporting, the judgement, and the claims have to be yours, because you are the one who will be asked to stand behind them.
I pitched and heard nothing. Should I follow up?
Yes, once, after seven working days. We aim to answer every pitch, and if one slipped past us a short nudge is welcome rather than an imposition.
Send us your pitch
One clear claim, why you are the person to make it, and what evidence stands behind it. That is all we need to start.
Please put the word PITCH and your proposed headline in the subject line. Submissions sent to other addresses are routed here automatically, which adds a few days.